Paris

This year's Easter tournament in Paris proved easy pickings for
Dutch ex-wunderkind Ronald Schlemper. Showing the benefit of his recent
spell in Japan, where he was on the verge of being promoted to
professional shodan, Schlemper coasted to six wins, including victories
over Korean 5 dan K. Lim, Terry Stacey and Jim Barty.

Mr. Lim has been living in Paris for many years, and most of the
best French players have been taught by him. This was, however, the
first time he had played in a tournament in Europe. He lost to Ronald,
and then to local man Andr Moussa, who finished second with 5/6. Third
and fourth were Lim and Terry, both with 4/6.

The shodan section was won by Levy (France) with 7/7, second was
Dutchman Puyt on 6, whilst among those on 5/7 were Ian Meiklejohn (1
dan) and Dave Walker 2 kyu). The slightly chaotic French organisation is
illustrated by the fact that Ian not only benefited from one of the
defaults that were going, but that he also had to give another shodan a
two stone handicap at one stage.

Best quotes from the tournament ... "What do you know about this
game?" 12 kyu to passing kibitzer - who turned out to be Schlemper) ...
"I got a bit desperate so started a five step ko " (Alastair Wall)

One of the marks of a strong player is the ability to recognise a
won position when you have one, and to play in such a way as to give
your opponent no chance to come back. Honinbo Shusaku is supposed to
have been able to play for a safe win from the first move when he had
black. Lesser mortals need larger margins or points nearer the end of
the game. This game from the Paris congress had to be won three times.
Richard Granville had black against Mr. Huang.

White 6: Richard criticised this play, though White could still get
a fair result with 8 at 9. Allowing Black to play 13, nullifying the
wall, is bad for White.

White 26, 28, 34: Highly unorthodox and not very convincing -
usually White plays 26' at 39, then pushes black along with 38 and 41
before cutting with 26 and 28.

White 38: Up to 37 White seems to have collapsed totally but with
this ingenious play he achieves a non-resignable result (though it's not
clear what he intends to do if 41' is at 42)

Black 45, 47: It is hard to imagine a combination more helpful to
White. This is the point at which Black should be playing solidly to
simplify the game. Instead he generates three weak groups out of
nowhere, and has to win the game all over again. He should have run into
the centre with 17, hoping to attack White's wall later.

White 50 is a good move. Black should be able to settle himself
without much trouble, but he plays some very clumsy moves here:

Black 59: Awful - he must cut at 60. This would bring 17 back into
the game and leave no good continuation for White.

Black 69: Careless - he should play 73 first. Fortunately for
Black, White believes his pseudo tesuji at 71 and doesn't play 74' at
77.

White 78 and 80 lean on the left side to prepare an attack on the
right, then he seems to change his mind and try to kill the left group.
Black lives easily, and then adds an unnecessary stone at 103.

The record stops at 103. Black seems to have finished winning the
game for the second time, but he apparently let White kill part of the
group in the lower left, and needed to do it again - this time by
killing the five stone group in the upper left corner. Some opponents
are less generous than this, and you have to make do with being given
only one chance to win.

This article is from the
British Go Journal
Issue 56
which is one of a series of back issues now available on the web.